The Black Hills Special Services Cooperative, South Dakota, is planning for the development of a research-based professional development model designed to help middle school teachers appropriately integrate technology into mathematics and science content in a way that raises the interest and persistence of female students in STEM.
In this model, professional development for technology integration will be the vehicle used to address and apply principles of gender equity at the middle school classroom level. As middle school teachers learn how to appropriately use technology to add value to existing mathematics and science curriculum and methodology, they will do so through the "lens" of gender equity.
Target participants in this project will initially include 30 middle school teachers of mathematics, science and computer science in five selected middle schools in western South Dakota which serve approximately 2300 students in grades 5-8.
Collaborating partners in the planning proposal are Technology and Innovations in Education (TIE), Rapid City, South Dakota; the Center for the Advancement of Mathematics and Science (CAMSE) at Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota; the Midwest Alliance for Professional Learning and Leadership (MAPLE), Rapid City South Dakota; and the following pre-K school districts in western South Dakota: Belle Fourche, Lead-Deadwood, Meade, Spearfish, and Todd County. These districts represent a cross section of South Dakota's student population.
